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Jenn Biddlecombe
MemberTemporary Position for an experienced ABA therapist in the Tsawwassen area.
For reasons to kooky to explain in this post, we find ourselves temporarily relocated to Tsawwassen for the month of October. In order to keep life as consistent as possible for my son, therapy must go on! I am looking for an ABA therapist with some experience working with children who have low verbal skills and who are on the more severe end of the spectrum. My son is 9 years old and has been in an ABA program for over 5 years. He has a lovely sense of humour and is generally easy to work with.
As my son will not be in school during October, timing of therapy sessions is very flexible. Looking to fill 2-3 sessions of 2-3 hours, Monday – Friday. If you are an experienced therapist and find yourself with some hours to spare in the month of October, please contact Jennifer at jennmudd@gmail.com
MemberA good day…
I am the mom of an 8 year old boy with severe autism. My son does not fly through programs, rather he tends to plod through step by little step. Day to day the changes in his learning and behaviours seem impercetible. Then you get a day, like today, where you see how all the hard work and small changes add up to big things.
18 months ago taking my son anywhere in the community was a huge ordeal. The thought of a trip to the store or dinner at a family restaurant with friends would fill me with dread. Since living like hermits wasn't a good long-term solution, we started a community trips program in therapy. Small goals were set to start – in the door at Save-On and then right back out. These goals were increased step by step. Now going to the store, a restaurant, a movie etc is no longer a problem.
Today was the biggest test yet – "Disney on Ice" at the Coliseum. We practiced and prepped and we were ready for action (including seats on the isle in case we had to make a quick get-a-way). Despite the preparation my heart was pounding as we entered the building… a lot of people and a lot of noise… Well the prep and hard work paid off! My son was a perfect little gentleman and he had a fabulous time! He was completely engaged in the show and was as captivated by the magic as any other kid there. I am so thankful for ABA and that my son had the opportunity today to be an active participant in the wonder of childhood.
Jenn Geddes
MemberToilet Training – Aaaahhhh!! – Give me strength!!!!
I don't recall seeing posts on this subject before so I hope no one is offended by talking about the potty…
My son is 7 years old and is severe on the spectrum. He has been in an ABA program for 3 years and has made very steady progress in all areas, including other independence skills. However, toileting is the area that completely eludes us. We have been targeting this skill off and on for 2 1/2 years without success. As my son will be attending school full time in the fall, I'm feeling panicked and frustrated that we are not able to make progress in this area.
We have done the "Big Day" (several times); habit training (ie going through the routine every hour); targeting one time per day; cutting holes in diapers; MEGA REINFORCEMENT for each little step towards success; simple social stories; etc. etc. Nothing is working.
I believe the problem is that he doesn't understand the expectation. The reason for this is he hasn't really made the "connection" due to lack of success (ie peeing in the toilet – heck anywhere near the toilet would be a good start!). Because my son's cognitive functioning is on the low side, it takes a long time and a lot of repetition to build a connection. For some reason that we have not yet been able to figure out, he chooses to demonstrate his amazing bladder control whenever we target toileting. Today after a long stand-off (ie lots of juice, no diaper, only short breaks away from the bathroom – and no success), we both ended up crying!
If you have had success in this area with a child who is on the low functioning/severe end of the spectrum, I would love to hear from you! Thanks!
Jenn Geddes
(Jaiden's mom)MemberHi!
This message is in response to "food issues". Our 6 year old boy also has HUGE eating issues. He has about a dozen foods that he cycles through. However, he generally only eats 1 or 2 of them at any given time. A few months ago all he would eat for days were bananas and grated parmesan cheese. He would eat nothing else. Cheese & bananas all day long – breakfast, lunch & dinner – sometimes 6 to 8 bananas a day or an entire bag of Kraft grated cheese. While you may be thinking there are worse things to eat, we discovered that the human body does not thrive really well on extreme amounts of bananas and parmesan cheese (gastro/intestinal nightmares)! In desparation we talked to our ABA consultant about our son's self-restricted diet.
Our fabulous consultant developed a "food program" for us based on a token economy system. We started with introducing foods that he has eaten before but were not in his current food repertoire. We would have him eat a bite of the non-preferred item and then he would receive a token. Another bite, another token. When the token board was complete (3-4 bites) he would receive his preferred food choice as a reward. If he refused to eat the non-pref item, we would let him leave the table, but he did not get his reward. Usually he wanted the reward enough to eat the non-pref item. The result of this was that Jaiden started to remember that he liked these other items and would request them or eat them when presented outside of therapy time. After a few weeks of this we began to introduce new food items. Nothing crazy like like liver & onions, just kid-typical things that he did not eat. Through this we have been able to broaden his base of what foods he will eat.
We also use the token board outside of therapy. For example, if he wants scrambled eggs ONLY for dinner, we will use the board to get him to eat a few bites of another food (something crazy like a vegetable perhaps?) before getting his precious eggs.
The food program has been an excellent tool for us to use to broaden our son's food choices! His eating is more balanced and he is enjoying more foods. We are hopefull that someday very soon we will be able to all sit down and eat the same thing for dinner!
It is amazing the wide variety of issues that ABA can address! Hope this helps.
Jenn (Jaiden's mom)
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